strokinit Chapter 10: Win a battle first to boost morale!
Chapter 10: Win a battle first to boost morale!
Liu Jingshuang turned and stepped outside:
"I'll take you to visit the various military outposts so you can get acquainted with the soldiers."
"No rush."
Liu Jingshuang stopped in her tracks.
Wei Zhao leaned against the table, his fingers tapping the surface unconsciously.
He was thinking, and his mind was working very fast.
"My mother is right. I should indeed let the soldiers know me as soon as possible to boost morale."
He looked at Liu Jingshuang, his tone very flat.
"But in the last battle, Calabash Valley suffered a great defeat, and all nine of my brothers died in battle."
"You know better than I do how big this blow is."
Liu Jingshuang's eyebrows twitched, but she didn't reply.
"You previously led 30,000 cavalry to defend Yanmen Pass, but in the end, only a few hundred men remained."
"We've held our ground, but what about morale?"
Wei Zhao stood up straight, his gaze serious.
"Jing Shuang, would it work if I went to the military camp and said a few nice words?"
Liu Jingshuang remained silent for two seconds.
"It doesn't work."
She was telling the truth. The Wei family army values the Wei banner and military achievements, not just empty words.
When a new commander-in-chief who has never fought a war goes to a military camp and gives a passionate speech, the veterans will salute him on the surface, but in their hearts they will only think that he is just putting on a show.
"So the most important thing right now is not to let people know me."
Wei Zhao's fingers stopped, and his tone turned serious:
"It's about finding an opportunity to fight a battle. And winning it."
He looked into Liu Jingshuang's eyes.
"A single victory is more effective than ten thousand words from me."
Liu Jingshuang stared at him for several seconds.
She certainly understood this principle.
During her ten years in the military, she witnessed the high spirits of many new generals taking office, as well as the true colors of many people being revealed after their first battle.
What truly wins people over is never status or lineage, but battle record.
But these words carried a different weight when they came from the mouth of a sickly twenty-year-old who had been lying on a wooden plank in the mourning hall just two weeks prior.
He didn't rush to make his presence known or try to win people's hearts.
He knows what is truly useful.
"But before that—"
Wei Zhao changed the subject: "I need you to help me catch up on my studies first."
"What do you mean by 'supplement'?"
"The assets of the Wei family army."
Wei Zhao shrugged, his candor almost unbecoming of a head coach:
"I'm completely clueless about the branches of service, the organization, the combat capabilities of each unit, and who leads which team."
"I don't need to elaborate on the principle of knowing yourself and your enemy, but at least let me get past the 'knowing yourself' hurdle first."
Liu Jingshuang glanced at him, and the corner of her mouth twitched slightly.
Wei Zhao wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he felt that it looked like a suppressed laugh.
"Come back and sit down."
She turned and walked back into the council chamber, closed the door, and went straight to the topographical map on the wall.
Wei Zhao followed and sat down on the chair next to him.
Liu Jingshuang drew a line on the map, and when she spoke, her speech was half a beat faster than usual, as if she were a different person.
"The Wei family army has a full strength of 300,000 men. There are 50,000 cavalry and 250,000 infantry."
"Of these, 30,000 cavalrymen were lost in the battle to defend Yanmen Pass."
Her finger pointed to the location of Yanmen Pass.
"The remaining 20,000 cavalrymen are divided into two groups."
"Ten thousand are directly under the command of the mother's central army, ready to provide support to various battlefields at any time."
"The other ten thousand are your personal guards—the group of men who rushed in with you on the day you entered the pass."
Wei Zhao nodded.
He was already familiar with the Royal Guard.
After more than ten days of marching, plus the battle at the pass, I finally became a familiar face to the locals.
"Two hundred and fifty thousand infantrymen within the pass."
Liu Jingshuang continued, drawing a circle on the map with her finger:
"Among them, 50,000 archers are the lifeline of the city's defense, and they will be temporarily under my command."
"The arrow towers and ballistae on the city walls are all maintained by these 50,000 men."
"The remaining 200,000 infantrymen will be divided among 15 captains."
"Each person commands over ten thousand, and can be split and reorganized at any time, each fighting independently."
"Whether it's a siege or a field battle, the basic unit is a formation of ten thousand men."
Wei Zhao silently did some calculations in his mind.
Twenty thousand cavalry, fifty thousand archers, and one hundred and fifty thousand infantry.
The total is 220,000.
"What about the remaining 50,000 people?"
Liu Jingshuang glanced at him.
"There are still 50,000 people."
Liu Jingshuang's tone changed, and she lowered her voice:
"Heavy armor troops."
The corners of her mouth turned up slightly, and there was a hint of pride in that smile that she herself could hardly hide.
"They belong to your third sister-in-law... or rather, to Qingluan's command."
"Currently, they are secretly stationed outside the Great Wall."
Wei Zhao sat up slightly.
"I don't know the exact location either."
Liu Jingshuang shook her head: "This army is the elite of the Wei family army!"
Fifty thousand heavily armored soldiers.
Wei Zhao recalled the description of heavily armored infantry in military books—fully covered in armor, impervious to swords and spears, and when advancing in formation, they were like a moving iron wall.
This type of unit is extremely expensive to produce; the armor alone is incredibly costly, not to mention the costs of training and maintenance.
As for the third sister-in-law, Huo Qingluan.
Wei Zhao remembered that she was the daughter of the Huo family, a military family, and married her third brother, Wei Jun.
He was a master of formations.
Entrusted with the command of 50,000 heavily armored troops by the Old Madam and hidden outside the Great Wall as a secret agent, this Third Sister-in-law's abilities are absolutely trustworthy!
Fifty thousand fully armored iron cans, arranged in a great formation in her hands, their fighting power would probably break even a cavalryman's teeth if they crashed into them.
Wei Zhao nodded slightly.
His gaze returned to the map, his mind racing with calculations.
Liu Jingshuang stood aside, not urging him.
She leaned against the wall, arms crossed, her gaze fixed on Wei Zhao's profile, waiting for him to speak.
What is Wei Zhao thinking?
He was thinking about killing the god.
The progress bar of "50/100" on the panel hung in front of me, like a fishbone stuck in my throat, neither going up nor down.
He only needs to accumulate another fifty points to level up to level two and unlock his skills—that's when his real comeback begins.
But how do I save up?
Should we stage a decisive battle?
Don't even think about it.
The Northern Rong's 500,000-strong army was eyeing them covetously, and that mad dog, Quan Ya Mao, couldn't wait for him to rush out and become his prey.
In a head-on battle between 300,000 and 500,000, no matter how fierce the Wei family army is, it's a fight to the death.
He's still learning how to deploy troops, let alone command a large-scale battle involving hundreds of thousands of people—what a joke! That's not war, that's suicide.
Therefore, there is only one way.
A small fight.
We will win.
A sure win.
Kill a few hundred or a thousand people, and you'll have enough Killing God Points.
Bringing back a victory would be more effective than a hundred impassioned speeches in the military camp.
"Shuang Jing".
Liu Jingshuang looked up.
I want to fight a war.
Wei Zhao pointed his finger at the map:
"It doesn't need to be big, a small scale is fine."
"Where do you think would be suitable?"
Liu Jingshuang raised an eyebrow.
She didn't answer immediately, but stared at Wei Zhao for two seconds.
There was scrutiny in those phoenix eyes, but more than that, it was a thoughtful look.
She was trying to figure out his intentions.
As Wei Zhao just said, a victory is more effective than ten thousand words.
Now they're asking where they can fight a small battle.
The meaning is quite clear from the beginning and end of the sentence.
Don't rush into tackling the tough issues.
Let's pick an easy target first and win a solid victory to establish our authority.
Liu Jingshuang shifted her gaze from his face to the map.
I drew my finger northwest and stopped at a narrow spot marked with contour lines.
"This place—Luoyingkou."